§ Statement of Purpose

The View from 1776 presents a framework to understand present-day issues from the viewpoint of the colonists who fought for American independence in 1776 and wrote the Constitution in 1787. Knowing and preserving those understandings, what might be called the unwritten constitution of our nation, is vital to preserving constitutional government. Without them, the bare words of the Constitution are just a Rorschach ink-blot that politicians, educators, and judges can interpret to mean anything they wish.

"We have no government armed with the power capable of contending with human passions, unbridled by morality and true religion. Our constitution is made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." John Adams, to the Officers of the First Brigade, Third Division, Massachusetts Militia, October 11, 1798.

Obama Is The Cause Of Our Homeland Security Failures

A Washington Timeseditorial recaps the ways in which President Obama has created a climate of CYA caution in our intelligence services. Since the president’s inauguration, the smart thing for intelligence agents has been to keep their heads down, do only and exactly what they are told to do, and avoid any initiatives to ferret out threats to our national security. The president, acting through Attorney General Holder, has made it clear that CIA agents’ approved actions can later be deemed criminal conduct.

Obama’s actions followed the pattern established by liberal-progressive, Democrat/Socialist Senator Frank Church in the mid-1970s, with predictably the same results.

The Church Committee did its best after President Nixon’s Watergate scandal to eviscerate our nation’s intelligence services. Senator Church started from the typical liberal-progressive perspective that our foreign enemies would not be our enemies if we were nice and friendly, if we shared our wealth with them. Their attitude was that the persons to be punished and whose careers were to be wrecked were CIA or FBI agents who had taken risks to uncover and to thwart lethal threats to the security of the United States.

As the 9/11 commission reported, destruction of the World Trade Towers and part of the Pentagon was a consequence of Senator Church’s neutering of our intelligence service capabilities. If there is to be a repeat of 9/11, it will be the result of act two of the Church Committee under President Obama.